I'm going to give you the same answer I gave my coworkers when I was teaching in Phoenix when they didn't want to teach D'Nealian writing. Those kids can produce the most beautiful graffiti. It's art. Truly.

All you need to do is apply some freaking pressure. Many of my former students have beautiful cursive writing.

Being able to read manuscripts makes children (and they adults they become) capable of understanding complicated political manuscripts that are a threat to my future dictatorship. I'm glad we're dumbing down education.

FTA:"The standards require that students master keyboarding and a form of handwriting - that can be print or cursive, said Kathryn Hrabluk, associate superintendent for the Arizona Department of Education. "

It should be all or nothing. Only teaching some will set up a situation in the future where the cursive haves will reign over the have nots.

Wangiss:Being able to read manuscripts makes children (and they adults they become) capable of understanding complicated political manuscripts that are a threat to my future dictatorship. I'm glad we're dumbing down education.

Well, if you suspect that any child will have cause to read an original document from before the turn of the millennium, chances are they'll have to be able to at least decipher cursive writing. The easiest way to do this is to teach children how to write in cursive so they can learn the letters and the various styles. Of course you could just devote that half hour a day or week to more test taking skills memorization and that is your choice.

Because it is important to be able to read what is written on the back of old family photographs.

/Amongst my grandmother's photos are notes written in Shorthand describing the location and subjects of the photos (she was a legal secretary) my mother kept saying she needed to translate those, unfortunately she passed away before doing so.

"It is a sort of rite of passage. I think there is artistic value in cursive ... also knowing how to read communication in cursive is something we should be able to do."

Oh. When I write, I write in cursive, and while it's not the best penmanship, it is legible for those who know how to read it. I unfortunately live in a house full of printers, sloppy block style and they can't decipher my writing any more than I can their printing. We have a communications gap. Grocery lists are the worst, ick. Stepkid has taken to drawing hieroglyphics to what he wants brought home as I cannot read his bad, bad printing.

/thinks that cursive should continue to be taught and sloppy printers should have to take a course in at least how to read it.//I still write letters and cards to friends and family, I would like for them to know who it's from///refuses to print. I like the flow of cursive, but like email and texting better :)

Couldn't agree more. I use a scribbled mess of cursive for my signature and thats it. Haven't use for anything since i stopped learning it in school. Of course i suppose preserving a lost art is partially the reason. I mean, look at how the Declaration of Independence was written, or the constitution. That was a norm for educated people who could even write back then. No one writes like that anymore, so seeing it as a lost art makes sense. Still, I ain't got use for it. In my line of work as long as i can write enough to get my point across and it's legible then I'm good.

rogue49:I guess you can just prove who you are and sign contracts with blood, like Gattaca.

The legal definition of a signature is "any mark made with the intent to authenticate a document", so cursive is not required for a "signature". IIRC, the court case that decided the legal definition involve tobacco spit.

A mix of cursive and print letters is the sign of educated, efficient handwriting. Meanwhile, I know people born just a few years after me who write their (print) letters like crooked tombstones in a graveyard.

Here is an example of the sort of cursive/print hybrid:That is not the best handwriting, but you can tell they learned cursive and still link frequent letter pairs.

ChrisDe:At some point in your life, somebody is going to write you a check. And you damned well should be able to sign it.

Signatures on a check look like a seizured chicken anyway, and there isn't anything stopping anyone from printing their name instead of signing anything that would need signing. Maybe back in olden times it was a bit of a security thing but it's not these days, it doesn't matter anymore.

gingerjet:The most useless thing I was taught in school? Cursive writing. The most useful thing I was taught in school? Keyboarding.

This.

odinsposse:ChrisDe: At some point in your life, somebody is going to write you a check. And you damned well should be able to sign it.

Your signature doesn't need to be in cursive. It just has to be something that will be recognized as your own mark. You could sign all your checks with a drawing of a penis if you wanted to.

And that.

My cursive writing sucks. My handwriting in general sucks. But when I have to sign something at work, it's easy to tell what my signature is. As long as you have some sort of distinctive markings in your signature, you're probably going to be alright.

dstrick44:Why bother to learn to tell time on a clock with hands. Why do Navy officers have to learn to navigate with a sextant?Its just useful to have certain skills.I was never taught cursive. My penmanship was and is too ugly.But I picked it up an I can read it and write it.Cursive is not Mandarin Chinese. Its not difficult to master, and good penmanship reflects well on the writer as does proper grammar and punctuation.Good communication skills go a long way toward making a good impression.

Enemabag Jones:TomD9938We called that Typing Class and it was mainly for girls and the kind of guys who weren't interested in taking a shop class (if you know what I mean).

So typing is for mezza fanooks.

Learning to type isn't for real men then.

Not sure if those are statements or questions exactly.

I will say that in the early / mid eighties, most guys would say there was no good reason to take a typing class (save for journo - wannabees). Of course none of us imagined the time we'd ultimately put in over a keyboard.

As an aside, my dad (born 1936) was a hard drinking high school drop out who made his living with his hands as an auto mechanic and later as a general contractor.

As rough as his origins were and as limited as his education, he had positively beautiful hand writing.